


from now we’ll always be together (although I’ve loved you all along)

by BeatrizCaelum



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, and the others too i guess, basically keith and mama krolia talking and crying, like he's MOM YOU GOTTA MEET SHIRO, some very subtle sheith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 00:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13869042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeatrizCaelum/pseuds/BeatrizCaelum
Summary: Krolia makes a promise to her son.





	from now we’ll always be together (although I’ve loved you all along)

_You left me. You left me. You left me._

_You found me. You found me. You found me._

_I found you._

“You’re my mother.”

Air left Keith’s lung as the words left his lips. The Universe seemed completely still. Suddenly, he wasn’t in the ship anymore, he wasn’t returning to Kolivan and the Blades; he was knocking desperately on the door of his old home, waiting. In his mind, the house seemed to sigh and deflate, as if saying, _I really hope someone answers you call after all this time._

“I am.”

 _I am your mother, I gave birth to you, you were born from me, I am, I am, I am,_ the Universe sang, lacking emotion. It was a simple statement. A small one. Yet, it collapsed – enormous –against every piece of Keith’s past.

“You – you are – you weren’t,” Keith trembled, “all my life, you weren’t here. You left.”

“I understand that you are angry with me,” Krolia sighed. “I did leave.”

“What, you are gonna say it was _your only choice_? Leaving me behind was _the only thing you could do_?”

“No,” it was firm. Keith’s throat and his entire body burned. “We never, ever have only one choice, Keith. So, I’m not going to say that I couldn’t have done something else, but it was the _best_ choice. That much is true. The mere thought of leaving you destroyed me – it did destroy me, it left me devasted for years –, but I couldn’t take you along with me if that meant putting you in danger. We were – are – at war. I needed to protect Earth. I needed to protect you and your father. I’m sorry I could not think of a better way.”

“You could have… visited from time to time. Sent some kind of signal. Anything! I didn’t know if you were even alive!” _How can I forgive you?_

“You will know, from now on, where I am. How I am.” Krolia had a dangerous promise hanging from her lips. A commitment. “ _Who_ I am. We have some… _catching up_ to do.” If Keith wasn’t so astonished taking her features in, absorbing every trace and shade of purple, the numerous galran marks on her skin and slightly yellow eyes, he would’ve snorted. “I want to know everything about you.”

“I’m not sure what I can tell you…”

_I have some walls up. I’m afraid people will leave me, just like you did. I prefer isolation over rejection, but then again, I’m not sure if this is really a matter of preferences and choices. I guess it is only survival. I survive things. I break things. I’m the loner. I don’t know how not to be the loner. You never taught me. You weren’t there to teach me anything. I leave. I run. I fight. I’ve been fighting for way too long._

Instead, Keith whispered something that was just as true as the many thoughts racing on his head, “I missed you. A lot.”  _My entire life is a story about missing you._

“I missed you too. More than a lot.” She admitted. “Do you… have other people in your life? Other than the Blades, I mean.”

“You have to meet Shiro,” Keith was suddenly breathless with the possibility, “and – and the other Paladins, too. My friends. You have to meet my friends.”

“You friends,” echoed Krolia with a smile that was somewhat fragile, tired. “Of course I will.”    

There was a silence in which Keith fought with his thoughts, pondering on how to express them, tears already pricking his eyes.  His tale of solitude and anger wasn’t something easy to tell.

 “I’ve always… pushed people away, after you left – like an instinct. But then Shiro came and I had someone close to me for the first time after Dad went missing. Then I met the others and we kind of became a family.”  

 _Nothing like an intergalactic war to make me open up a little,_ he thought.

“I’m glad you could find people to be with you, as difficult as it might have been.” It was all Krolia could offer, as a look of intense sorrow danced on her violet irises. A look of someone that knew too well the kind of loneliness Keith was describing; one that said, _I cannot believe I wasn’t there right by your side to end it._

“Yeah… Me too. They’re important to me. Really important.”

 “And your father...?”

“I have no idea where he is, sorry.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry, kid. You’re not to blame for _anything_.”  A pause. Keith could feel the gentle traces of a new future being sketched, expanding.  “We can look – _we will look_ – for him, if you want. Together.”

“Together,” He tasted the almost foreign word on his tongue. It was bittersweet and reminded him of long nights on the dessert and Shiro’s dazzling smile. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

“It has always been my plan,” she started carefully, “to come back, Keith. To both of you on Earth. When the war was over. I – I couldn’t imagine you two were separated. If I knew you were alone all this time, I…”

Her hands – her purple and yet terribly familiar hands, _his mother’s hands_ – curled into fists briefly, then took a hesitant approach for Keith’s own.

“Mom…” He whispered, and for the first time the word held hope in its arms.

“Let me make it up to you. Please.”

Keith’s rigid expression at the surprise of being touched melted into something bordering on childish. He wasn’t one to pray, but only for a moment his heart pleaded, _let me be a child, let me be on my mother’s embrace, let me be something other than impossibly lonely._

And Krolia – she burst. That’s what everything Keith saw: an explosion that reminded him very much of all the times his feelings screamed inside of him to get out, out, out –

She was hugging him.

“Mom.” It was the word again, and again, and again. “Mom.”

“Son.” Only once.

 _Once is enough_ , Keith thought feebly, _as long as you stay._  

 

**Author's Note:**

> sooo there's already fics of Shiro meeting Krolia and buddy that's not a party I want to miss   
> But English is not my first language and writing this chapter already tired me out immensely. It is very hard for me to write in English and I hope I did an okay job. Please let me know what you think and tell me if you find any mistakes!  
> I plan to add Shiro meeting Krolia. I really do. I'm already working on it. Wish me luck, writing is a pain.


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